Tag Archives: Valentine’s Day

Our ‘Woman Of The Year’ is Jane Bailey of Westgate Tyres

FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s ‘Woman of the Year’ Award Winner is Jane Bailey of Westgate Tyres in Morecambe.

We first met Jane when she joined the new FOXY Lady Approved Tyre Register and then organised two popular Ladies evenings locally with the proceeds going to the CancerCare charity.

We soon realised that when we didn’t speak to Jane, we spoke to two friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic females in her absence. So many females in any tyre business is very rare indeed.

Fast forward a year and when I was at the Tyresafe Awards last summer my table companion, Alan Baldwin from Micheldever Tyres, told me about Jane and what a remarkable business lady he knew her to be.

A little later on, and in contact with Ashleigh Warren of GiTi Tire UK, Jane was mentioned again…

This time I could not ignore these coincidences any longer.

So I decided to find out Jane’s business story for myself and on the strength of this was delighted to present her with our inaugural Valentine’s Day ‘Woman Of The Year’ Award in Morecambe in front of her husband Graham.

Left to right, the photo is of GiTi Tire UK’s Marketing Manager Ashleigh Warren, Jane’s daughter Emma with grand-daughter Felicity, Steph Savill (FOXY), Jane Bailey, daughter Sophie and Micheldever Tyres’ Area Sales Manager Keith O’Brien.

This is Jane Bailey’s Story (in her own words)

In the 1970’s women were even less likely to be mechanics or tyre fitters than they are today. There was little or no training available for us. So when I left school at 16 I went to work for British Gas for 11 years but my love of cars remained.

In the meantime I had met my future husband Graham who was a fitter with a national tyre company and we got married when I was just 18.

Our first daughter Emma was followed by three miscarriages so we were thrilled when our second daughter Sophie was born eight years later.

How did Westgate Tyres come about?

When the right premises came up for us in 1997 Graham and I (in the photo) jumped at the chance to open our own tyre business which we called Westgate Tyres. This was a scary thing to do because Emma was 10 years old and Sophie just 20 months.

We risked everything to set up the garage but neither of us wanted to look back in later life and regret not having been brave enough to give it a go.

At the beginning I did the book-keeping, planned the tyre promotions and ran the reception area. Sophie spent her early days in a playpen in the waiting room – it was a case of pulling together to keep a roof over our heads.

After working all day at the garage, Graham would look after the girls at night whilst I’d do a stint at the local Asda on the tills until midnight. These were long, hard and tiring days for us both with little outside support but we always knew our hard work would pay off in the end.

As the business grew, so did the administration and promotions so I took the brave step of leaving Asda when Westgate Tyres became our only source of income.

These were precarious financial times when holidays went on hold and we worked 363 days a year bar Christmas and New Year Days. My role as wife, mother and business partner became harder and harder but our efforts were at last starting to pay off, allowing us to employ staff and add new customer services.

When did the rest of the family get involved?

Our daughter Emma (now 29) had started working for us as a Saturday receptionist at the age of 14. She shares our love of cars, of course, owning a Barbie Pink Puma at the age of 17! She now works full time in the business and has two daughters herself, aged 5 years and 6 months.

Unsurprisingly our eldest grand-daughter also loves cars, is often seen in overalls and the pair of them starred in our award-winning Tyre Safety advertising campaign.

Emma’s husband has his own accident repair centre so it’s cars, cars, cars for the whole family.

Our younger daughter, Sophie, is 20, equally as car mad and runs a pimped up Suzuki Swift Sport. She is helping us take the business forward with a fresh eye.

The business is now a GT Radial Performance Centre and we feel we’re fitting trust with every tyre alongside such a fantastic guarantee. Sophie visited the Ascari race track in Spain last year and test drove a selection of vehicles fitted with GT Radial Tyres – they all performed really impressively in both wet and dry conditions.

Sophie’s partner has his own car detailing company so our family businesses all complement each other.

How did you promote your business as different from others?

I’m a strong believer in targeted advertising and have spent years working hard to build awareness of our business.

The tyre industry is very male dominated and doesn’t always have the best of images so my daughters and I work tirelessly to make our business as genuinely female friendly as possible.

So much so that we decided to join the FOXY Lady Approved Tyre Register and work with their motoring club for women to promote our regular Ladies Nights. Our aim is to empower local women with the knowledge and confidence to do their own car maintenance and tyre safety checks.

As a result, Westgate Tyres sees a high percentage of female customers and I honestly believe they visit us because they know women work here. They tell us they’re reassured that they’re understood and always treated with the utmost respect and honesty.

When did your personal health become an issue?

After a couple of years of feeling so ill and so tired that I could put my head on my desk and instantly fall asleep, I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2013.

This is when my world fell apart – I was critically ill and admitted to hospital a week later for major surgery.

My family now had the business to run by themselves whilst worrying about a seriously ill mum and wife. I don’t know how they all held it together but they did – putting on their brave faces, shedding tears in private and going through the motions of keeping the business running as normally as possible in the circumstances.

The Cancercare charity has been a true lifeline for me. It has provided emotional support which you need, especially when you’re self employed. When you’re recovering from major surgery of any kind you need rest, an absence of stress and time for your body to heal. Colon cancer adds additional challenges – you need to get used to a completely new diet and just getting through every day has been a real battle for me.

Trying to recover and keep the business running was extremely difficult but cancer hadn’t beaten me. Within a couple of weeks, I was doing the book-keeping from my bed and visiting the business in a wheelchair. After three years, I’m delighted to report that Mrs B (as the staff all call me) is fighting strong.

During all this I’ve been amazed by how many friends and customers came to talk to me about health concerns before being diagnosed with this cancer themselves. So I now try to raise early awareness of colon cancer whenever I can, including organising a fund-raising event every year.

The fear of having to give up everything we had worked so hard for has certainly pushed me on and, had I worked for someone else, I might have lost my job or not had the unshakeable resolve to keep going, regardless.

What does the future look like today?

After all this, my love of cars is stronger than ever. I particularly love classic cars because they are so stylish, they look very different and they are often a driving challenge. I try to visit as many classic car rallies as I can with either a Morris 1000 or Sunbeam Alpine.

My everyday car is a sporty open-top 150 Mini whilst Graham enjoys his Subaru, Porsche and Nissan Navara!

I’m also very proud of our daughters as ambassadors of our business and now it’s their turn to take things forward and allow me time to focus on myself, for a change.

I am delighted to see such a bright future ahead of them as they start to make their female mark on today’s tyre industry.

I often wonder if my Dad could see how those early days spent encouraging me to help him under a car bonnet would shape the rest of my life! And then that of my daughters and grandchildren, given time!

Jane Bailey, Westgate Tyres
FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s first ‘Woman Of The Year’
Award Winner
Valentine’s Day, 2017

The foxy choice for a Valentine’s Day mechanic

Surprise, surprise – most women drivers would like James Bond star Daniel Craig to be their personal motor mechanic.

Whereas fewer than one in five men would be prepared to stop at the road to help Joanna Lumley change a tyre.

These are some of the findings in a fun survey carried out by Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) with a Valentine’s Day theme.

MTS analysis suggests that women ‘clearly feel that the 007 star would be more technically competent to deal with car servicing than David Beckham’ who came second in the survey.

FOXY analysis suggests that any perceived mechanical prowess may well have more to do with their ‘phwoar factor’ in many female eyes…

Which explains why only 1% of women thought that Justin Bieber would make a good mechanic (or being in the least bit interested either way perhaps).

Happily for us ladies, the age of chivalry is not totally dead, as some might have thought, with more than 50% of men in the survey volunteering to stop at the roadside to help a lady in distress (should we ever feel the need to change our own wheel for ourselves that is…).

Even so, we were surprised to read that only 18% of men would stop to help Joanna Lumley, 12% Cheryl Cole and 3% Adele – let’s hope these three foxy ladies know what to do in the event of a car accident and could call on the Club’s VIP services whenever they need a motoring friend.

Needless to say the MTS survey had a serious point to it too, reminding us all that regular servicing and tyre care are vital to our personal road safety as well as that of other car occupants and pedestrians. And this explains why MTS is also a FOXY Lady Approved tyre fitting centre and garage who really cares.

FOXY

What can you give the lady who has everything at Valentine’s Day?!!

What can you give the lady who has everything this Valentine’s Day?!!

The answer, of course, is a FOXY Lady Drivers Club lifetime subscription

Well, it may not be the obvious choice but don’t you think perfume, flowers, chocolates and jewellery are soooo shallow and ‘last year’?!

There’s something more solid and sensible about giving a Club membership as a Valentine’s gift.

It says how much you care about her, how important her safety is to you, how you value her peace of mind and how you don’t want her to get ripped off in garages, accident repair centres or car dealerships, or on her own if she breaks down – and it says your gesture is really worthwhile.

It’ll last far longer than those red roses or chocolates.

After all, it doesn’t matter if your foxy lady is young, more mature or somewhere in between. We can all do with being shown that someone cares enough to look after us when we’re doing what most of us do every day – drive.

And it’s not our driving that’s the cause of most accidents and incidents, as we know – it’s mainly men! So in reality, they owe it to us to give us a lifetime subscription to FOXY.

That, and the jewellery after all. There’s nothing wrong with being a tad shallow once a year!

Love FOXY! Happy Valentine’s Day.

Romancing Romeos this Valentine’s Day

What can I get Romeo for Valentine's Day?
Budding Juliets planning to take advantage of the leap year and looking for that last minute extra special Valentine’s gift might decide to contact Europcar, to sweep the man of their dreams off their feet!

Why not, for example, propose in a Porsche or show him you’re a foxy fan in a fun MINI Cooper S Convertible. Either one would surely make this Valentine’s Day one to stand out of the crowd.

“Flowers, champagne and a candle-lit dinner are, of course, all very nice. But to really get hearts racing we think hiring a Prestige [car] from Europcar could be the icing on the cake this Valentine’s Day.” said Ken McCall, Managing Director, Europcar UK Group.

And with prices starting at just £84 a day, we’re inclined to agree when you’re out to treat your loved one like a celebrity. Hint, hint…

The Prestige from Europcar range includes 4x4s, luxury saloons and performance cars. There’s a network of over 40 UK locations and if you hire for more than 2 days they’ll include delivery and collection, even to a secret address providing it’s within 15 miles of a Europcar station.

Needless to say, model availability is on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

FOXY